R

I wanted a
perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme,
and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about
not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it,
without knowing what’s going to happen next.

Gilda Radner

I'd
rather be a woman than a man. Women can cry, they can wear cute clothes, and
they're first to be rescued off sinking ships.

Gilda Radner

I had to quit
university because my Dungeons and Dragons character died.

Al Rae

No,
it is a very interesting number, it is the smallest number expressible as a sum
of two cubes in two different ways.

Srinivasa
Ramanujan (1887-1920) Indian
mathematicianwhen G.H. Hardy
referred to 1,729 as a "dull" number

Hating something
is too much work to do. What you want to do is ignore something. It is more
effective.

Sridhar Ramaswamy

There
is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable
non-conformist.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer

In the field of
morality, compromise is surrender to evil.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer

Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent.Ayn Rand

I would step in
the way of a bullet if it were aimed at my husband. It is not self-sacrifice to
die protecting that which you value: If the value is great enough, you do not
care to exist without it. This applies to any alleged sacrifice for those one
loves.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) Russian-American writer

“Judge not, that
ye be not judged”... is an abdication of moral responsibility: it is a moral
blank check one gives to others in exchange for a moral blank check one expects
for oneself. There is no escape from the fact that men have to make choices; so
long as men have to make choices, there is no escape from moral values; so long
as moral values are at stake, no moral neutrality is possible. To abstain from
condemning a torturer, is to become an accessory to the torture and murder of
his victims. The moral principle to adopt... is: “Judge, and be prepared to be
judged.”

Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Russian-American writer

You
can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.

Jeannette
Rankin (1880-1973) American suffragist,
politician

You
take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go.

Jeannette
Rankin (1880-1973) American suffragist,
politician

Imagine
if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This
happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.

Americans
will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.

Dan Rather (b. 1931) American broadcast journalist

It
is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country in
wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind
as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and
gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died, they gave up two lives
-- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died,
they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They
gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for their
county, for us. All we can do is remember.

Thomas Jefferson
once said, “We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.”
And ever since he told me that I stopped worrying.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) US
President (1981-89), actor

To those who cite the First
Amendment as reason for excluding God from more and more of our institutions
everyday; I say: The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to
protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to
protect religious values from government tyranny.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) US
President (1981-89), actor

Courage
is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more
important than fear.

Ambrose
Redmoon (contemp.)

Overwhelmingly the terrorists
have been Mohammedan males, moody representatives of a dysfunctional
civilization that peaked in the twelfth century and knows it. Now, since these
loons are known to be very high risks for blowing things up, it might make
sense to focus on them in searches. Ah, but this would be profiling. It might
offend terrorists. So we randomly search people we know not to be terrorists,
thus avoiding profiling. See? It’s like losing your watch under a street light,
but looking for it in a dark alley.

Fred Reed

Failure
is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others.

Jules Renard (1864-1910) French writerJournal (1898)

The only man who is really
free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an
excuse.

Jules Renard (1864-1910) French writer

Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get stuck in jet engines.John Renfield

Humor
distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their pedestals.

Agnes
Repplier (1855-1950) American writer

This
is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not
always conform to our whim.

James Reston (1909-1995) Scottish-American journalist and editor

All
politics are based on the indifference of the majority.

James Reston (1909-1995) Scottish-American journalist and editorNew
York Times (1968)

There
is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of
thinking.

So we reach into
the raging chaos, and we pluck some small glittering thing, and we cling to it,
and we tell ourselves it has meaning, and that the world is good, and we are
not evil, and we will all go home in the end.

Anne Rice

In spite of all
the refinements of civilization that conspired to make art-the dizzying perfection
of the string quartet or the sprawling grandeur of Fragonard’s canvases -beauty
was savage. It was as dangerous and lawless as the earth had been eons before
man had one single coherent thought in his head or wrote codes of conduct on
tablets of clay. Beauty was a SavageGarden.

Anne RiceThe Vampire Lestat?

You convinced me
long ago that the world was a SavageGarden...well, then, in the SavageGarden
you shine beautifully, my friend...and in my wanderings...I always return to
see the colors of the garden in your shadow, or reflected in your eyes.

Anne RiceThe
Vampire Lestat?

People who cease
to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don’t
know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is
eternally difficult.

Anne RiceInterview
With the Vampire

It occurred to him suddenly that he wasn't very good at bitterness or regret, that he didn't have the stamina for them, and if he was to recapture his dignity he had better shape up fast.

Anne Rice,Queen of the Damned, Marius

No
matter what a man's past may have been, his future is spotless.

John R. Rice (1895-1980) American evangelist, author

All big things in
this world are done by people who are naive and have an idea that is obviously
impossible.

Dr. Frank Richards

Give
me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in
them to hang him.

Courage
is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're
scared.

Eddie
Rickenbacker (1890-1973) American
industrialist and aviator

Love
consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other.

Rainer Maria
Rilke (1875-1963) German poetLetters
to a Young Poet

I
didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain just to eat leaves!

Michael
Rivero

In the name of ‘the war on
terrorism,’ the U.S. government kills Muslims in Afghanistan who have never
lifted a finger against the United States, but refuses to profile Muslims on
its own territory who might be planning terrorist incidents.

Paul Craig Roberts

I contend that we
are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you
understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why
I dismiss yours.

Stephen Roberts

VILLAGE BOY 2: We're ashamed to live here. Our fathers are cowards.
O'REILLY: Don't you ever say that again about your fathers,
because they are not cowards. You think I am brave because I carry a gun; well,
your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your
brothers, your sisters, and your mothers. And this responsibility is like a big
rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries
them under the ground. And there's nobody says they have to do this. They do it
because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of
courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee
anything will ever come of it. This is bravery.

If you need to visualize the
soul, think of it as a cross between a wolf howl, a photon, and a dribble of
dark molasses. But what it really is, as near as I can tell, is a packet of
information. It's a program, a piece of hyperspatial software designed
explicitly to interface with the Mystery.Tom Robbins

Most of our so-called
reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already
do. James Harvey
Robinson The Mind in the
Making

We
should have been expecting it. You tangle with a foot-long Cockroach and live
through it, naturally you have to expect a giant lizard with three tits to come
along sooner or later.

Just
as there are Laws of Conservation of Matter and Energy, so there are in fact
Laws of Conservation of Pain and Joy. Neither can ever be created or destroyed.
But one can be converted into the other.

Yes, I know my enemies, they're the teachers who taught me to
fight me: Compromise, Conformity, Assimilation, Submission, Ignorance,
Hypocrisy, Brutality, the Elite, all of which are American Dreams. Zack de la Rocha

I
would rather be the man who bought the BrooklynBridge
than the one who sold it.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist

If
stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist

Horsemanship through the
history of all nations has been considered one of the highest accomplishments.
You can't pass a park without seeing a statue of some old codger on a horse.Will Rogers (1879-1935)
American humorist

You can't say civilization
don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist

I
think there are two areas where new ideas are terribly dangerous: economics and
sex. By and large, it's all been tried, and if it's really new, it's probably
illegal or dangerous or unhealthy.

Felix G.
Rohatyn (b. 1928) Austrian-American banker
and diplomat

The walls we build around us to keep out pain also
keep out joy.

Jim RohnAm I self-righteous? Why not? It's not like I can count on
you to be righteous for me. Henry Rollins

You
would think that pot had some kind of power. I mean, come on, it's a plant, not
a reason for living... Controlled by a plant, how hilarious. A plant, a god
damn plant Henry Rollins

Nothing brings
people together more than mutual hatred

Henry Rollins

When
will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery
rather than avenge it?

Anna Eleanor
Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US
(1932-45)

It
is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.

Anna Eleanor
Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US
(1932-45)

Be
sincere; be brief; be seated.

Franklin
Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) US President (1932-1945)Advice on speechmaking to his son,
James

No
man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to
risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause.

Theodore
Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1908)

Patriotism
means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or
any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself
stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently
serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent
that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.
In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the
president or anyone else.

Theodore
Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1908)

It
is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong stumbled
or where the doer of the deed could have done better. The credit belongs to the
man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and
blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again. Who
knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a
worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high
achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring
greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
know neither victory or defeat.

It isn’t evil that’s running the earth, but mediocrity. The
crime is not that Nero played while Rome
burned, but that he played badly. Ned Rorem

Too
many people too often put off making hard disk backups until times are less
hectic, forgetting that there is no time more hectic than when you have a
report due in two hours and get a "Disk error reading drive C:"
message on your display.

When
you take my arm, and we begin that awkward, stately walk toward your
husband-to-be, I will envy him only one thing. He will be able to see you
coming toward him. He will behold you in your brightness, confidence and
wonder, as you cause everyone to gasp in amazement, just as you did the day you
were first presented to the world.

Roger
Rosenblatt (b. 1940) American essayist,
playwright, English professorTo his daughter on her wedding

I'm
not schooled in the science of human factors, but I suspect surprise is not an
element of a robust user interface.

It
may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong
-- but that's the way to bet.

Damon Runyon (1884-1946) American writer and journalist

One
of these days in your travels a guy is going to come up to you and show you a
nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy
is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of
the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as
sure as you stand there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider.

Damon Runyon (1884-1946) American writer and journalist

There
is hardly anything in the world that some man can't make a little worse and
sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's
lawful prey.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic and writer

Whereas
it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property
of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no
right to the property of the poor.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic and writerUnto
This Last (1862)

No
one gossips about other people's secret virtues.

Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

A
certain power of enduring boredom is essential to a happy life. The lives of
most great men have not been exciting except at a few great moments. A
generation that cannot endure boredom will be a generation of little men.

Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

It is
not altogether true that persuasion is one thing and force is another. Many
forms of persuasion, even many of which everybody approves, are really a kind
of force. Consider what we do to our children. We do not say to them:
"Some people think the earth is round, and others think it flat; when you
grow up, you can, if you like, examine the evidence and form your own conclusion."
Instead of this we say: "The earth is round." By the time our
children are old enough to examine the evidence, our propaganda has closed
their minds, and the most persuasive arguments of the Flat Earth Society make
no impression. The same applies to the moral precepts that we consider really
important, such as "don't pick your nose" or "don't eat peas
with a knife.", There may, for ought I know, be admirable reasons for
eating peas with a knife, but the hypnotic effect of early persuasion has made me
completely incapable of appreciating them.

Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

I
am firm. You are obstinate. He is a pig-headed fool.

Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

Most
people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

Nine-tenths
of the appeal of pornography is due to the indecent feelings concerning sex
which moralists inculcate in the young; the other tenth is physiological, and
will occur in one way or another whatever the state of the law may be. On these
grounds, although I fear that few will agree with me, I am firmly persuaded
that there ought to be no law whatsoever on the subject of obscene publications.

Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because
he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have
governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and
unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

In America,
everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are
equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the
time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that
all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
English mathematician and philosopher

One
should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and
keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission
to an unnecessary tyranny.

Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

The fact that an opinion has
been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed
in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is
more likely to be foolish than sensible. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
English mathematician and philosopherMarriage and Morals

This
is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not
to be frightened by absurdities.

Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician
and philosopher

To
fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts
dead.

But
regardless of whether Hitler or the mass murderer of your choice sincerely
regretted his actions in his last moments and made it to Heaven, with all due
respect, what difference does it make to you? Apart from the awkward silence if
you happen to bump into him there, I mean.

John
"jr" Russell
(contemp.)Belief-L (24
Nov. 1999)

Everyone
should be prepared at times to re-examine the foundations of their beliefs, to
view the world from others' perspectives, and to seriously consider the
possibility that what they accept as the Absolute Truth may, in fact, not be
true at all -- except me, of course, because I *know* I'm right.

John
"jr" Russell
(contemp.)Belief-L

In
my opinion, any faith that cannot withstand a little shaking isn't constructed
too well to begin with. Jesus built his church on a rock, not on swampland.

John
"jr" Russell
(contemp.)Belief-L

My,
how the legal system has changed. It used to be that having a pathological fear
and hatred of the victim was considered a *motive*. Now it's a *defense*.

John
"jr" Russell
(contemp.)Belief-L (8-Nov-1999)

In his soul, he knew with sudden certainty that it was not
rebellion or doubt or error or even sin that broke God’s heart; it was
indifference.Mary Doria Russel,Children
of God

Taking
joy in life is a woman's best cosmetic.

Rosalind
Russell (1911-1976) American actress,
philanthropist

Acting
is standing up naked and turning around slowly.

Rosalind
Russell (1911-1976) American actress,
philanthropistLife Is a Banquet (1977)